As the number of people using the Internet continues to grow, the number of criminals attempting to prey on them grows accordingly. Phishing is one common criminal practice, whereby criminals attempt to trick their victims into revealing sensitive information by masquerading as trusted entities.
As a result, a variety of anti-phishing techniques have been developed. Using one common technique, a database may be maintained that contains a list of websites that are known to be used for phishing. Such a database may be maintained at a central server that is periodically updated and accessed remotely by clients when the clients wish to verify the safety of a website. Alternately, the database may be maintained at a client system, periodically updated from a central server, and consulted locally when the client wishes to verify the safety of a requested website.